


Twins

by CuriosityRedux



Series: Dragon Drabbles Berk [18]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 22:27:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16752619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuriosityRedux/pseuds/CuriosityRedux
Summary: Sharing a room isn't so bad sometimes.





	Twins

**Twins**

**-**

She didn’t cry often. He knew why, of course. As long as he could remember, the sparkle of tears on his sister’s face had been followed by scoldings of, “Be a Viking, Ruff!” and “Yeh don’t see Tuff crying, do yeh?” He’d stood off to the side while she’d sniffed and tried to wipe the evidence away. But it usually ended in a swat to her wrist or behind anyways. And he’d frown and try not to notice. 

When Sam the Yak had run away, he’d watched the hard clench of Ruffnut’s jaw as she stared out the window. Her chin had trembled, but her eyes watched the horizon with a hard glint, watching for the return of their childhood friend. When the sky turned black and Sam had yet to return, her gaze had turned watery, and she’d pushed away from the window. She’d stomped upstairs and hadn’t come down until the next morning. 

He’d heard her soft noises of loss and loneliness, just barely wavering over her bed. While he tossed and turned and sighed with sleeplessness, she’d pulled the blanket over her head and used her pillow to muffle her crying. 

She didn’t break that habit after growing up. Even at nineteen, she still held onto her tears until the dead of night. It wasn’t loud— hardly a whisper of a sound— but it had been enough to rouse him from dreams of sheep and glory. Stifling a groan, he rolled onto his back and threw his arm over his eyes. 

 _Everybody_  had heard the way she’d chewed out Fishlegs and Snotlout in the Great Hall that evening. It was no mystery that they fawned over her, and that his sister had no problem with accepting their gifts and servitude. But he knew Ruff. He’d been able to tell long before she exploded that she found nothing flattering in their attentions. Astrid was marrying Hiccup, so his sister was the remaining prize to be won. And Ruffnut knew that.

Tuff sighed. “Come here.”

In the dark, from across the room, he heard her stiffen beneath her blankets. “Just shut up and go back to sleep.”

“Stop being stupid and get over here,” he retorted. His tone brooked no argument, the annoyance of being stirred from his dream sinking into his voice. Sharing a room with your sister wasn’t ever something you  _enjoyed_  or even got used to. It was just the result of having dragons destroy your house every few months— it was dumb to build more rooms than necessary. 

Ruff was quiet for a long few moments. He thought she might try and pretend to have fallen asleep instead of trying to argue, but then the blankets rustled. Bare feet padded across the floor. Arm still slung over his face, Tuffnut slid to the side of his bed and felt the mattress dip under his twin’s knee. Then she was stretching out next to him, curling into his side and laying her head on his chest. 

“You stink,” she sniffed. He could feel the sticky wetness of her cheeks on his bare skin. 

“You stink worse,” he grumbled. Her arm wrapped around his waist, and he let his free hand rest on her forearm. 

She didn’t reply. She blinked away new tears and sighed. 

“I can take care of em, if you want,” he mumbled. 

“Nah. They let me use them for target practice.”

A ghost of a smile tickled the corner of his lips. “Better them than me.” And then a few minutes later, he was dunking a black sheep into the Zippleback goal, high-fiving his twin as the crowd cheered his name once more. 


End file.
